We have been exclusively retained by a privately held food manufacturing organization as they are hiring an IT Operations Lead to join their team. This company has deep roots in Central Florida and a reputation for operational consistency, product quality, and long employee tenure. The company operates a vertically integrated manufacturing and distribution model that supports well-known consumer products and requires close coordination between technology and the business.

This role offers the opportunity to be highly visible and genuinely impactful. IT is not treated as a back-office function here, it is expected to be present, responsive, and closely aligned with day-to-day operations. For someone who enjoys being onsite, interacting directly with users, and taking real ownership of IT support delivery, this is a role where your work is noticed and valued.

This is a full-time, direct-hire position based onsite in Lakeland, Florida.

The Role You’ll Play

The IT Operations Lead serves as the internal owner of day-to-day IT support operations. This role functions as a junior IT Manager, focused on building relationships with business users, overseeing the managed services provider, and ensuring day-to-day support issues are resolved effectively. This role acts as the central coordination point between business users, internal IT leadership, and the managed services provider, ensuring issues are addressed, escalations are clear, and IT support is delivered consistently.

• Act as the primary internal contact for IT operations and support

• Oversee MSP support delivery, ticket flow, prioritization, and follow-through

• Monitor service levels and hold vendors accountable

• Maintain visibility into infrastructure, network, and end-user issues, including an onsite data center and virtualized environments

• Resolve common end-user issues directly when appropriate, without unnecessary ticket escalation

• Support change management and user communication during outages or system changes

• Help shift IT culture from ad-hoc fixes to structured, process-driven support

Background Profile:

The ideal candidate brings an ownership mentality and comfort operating in an environment with shared responsibilities. They are hands-on enough to step in when needed, but mature enough to coordinate, communicate, and escalate effectively.

• Experience in IT operations, systems administration, or senior support roles

• Prior experience working with or overseeing MSPs

• Strong understanding of Windows-based environments and experience administering O365

• Familiarity with Active Directory and basic networking concepts

• Experience with ticketing systems and vendor coordination

• Strong user-facing communication skills

• Willingness to work onsite daily

• Nice-to-have experience:

• Manufacturing or plant-based IT environments

• Exposure to onsite data center operations

• VMware or virtualized environments

• Prior experience in a junior IT Manager or IT Lead capacity

• Exposure to change management initiatives

• Azure or cloud-adjacent experience